In the extreme southeastern corner of British Columbia, at the junction of highway 83 and the Crowsnest Highway is a small sawmill town called Elko. Given the primary industry of the region was lumber, much of the pioneer settlements were build from wood; fire was Elko's nemesis. A blaze in 1914 gave a foretaste of the conflagration of Monday, 8 September 1919, which consumed the old Melbourne House, Fred Roo's general store and post office, the telephone exchange, and the pool hall. In 1924 a "hurricane" ripped through the valley damaging the town, and a fire in early December 1925 wiped out more of the central business district. It was nothing, however, compared to the inferno that blew into the community from the delta on Tuesday, 18 August 1931.